BFG Tech GeForce 7800 GS OC AGP

Gameplay Evaluations - How We Tested:

Please be aware that the way we test our video cards is not a like-for-like comparison, and it is not meant to be. We decided to concentrate on finding the "Best Playable" settings - this means that we're finding the best possible gaming experience delivered on each different configuration. There are no timedemos used in our evaluations - we're focusing on the real-world gaming experience, which is, ultimately what should determine your next video card purchase.

Rather than focusing on reporting the minimum and average frame rates for every configuration, we have decided to move the focus to resolution and settings. Thus, we are displaying our "Best Playable" resolutions and settings in a table that should be easier to understand than our previous format. If you take the logic that the higher the resolution and in game details, the faster the video card, you will not go far wrong.

We have also included a table of frame rates below the best-playable settings tables. These frame rates are recorded at the video card's best playable settings and should not be considered as an 'apples to apples' frame rate comparison, as they are far from that. Many readers have asked us to include frame rates, and we feel that this is the best compromise for the time being. We will look at improving this in future reviews and your feedback is more than welcome in the discussion thread.

System Setup

AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 (operating at 2200MHz, 11x200MHz); Leadtek K8NW Pro (NVIDIA nForce3); 2 x 512MB Corsair XMS3200LLPT Registered Memory (operating in dual channel at 200MHz with 2.0-3-2-6 1T timings); Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB 7200RPM SATA 150 Hard disk drive; OCZ PowerStream 520W Power Supply; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; DirectX 9.0c; NVIDIA nForce3 Standalone chipset drivers, version 5.11.

Video Cards:

• 1x BFG Tech GeForce 7800 GS OC AGP 256MB - operating at its default clock speeds of 400/1250MHz using Forceware version 82.12, available from nZone.
  
  
• 1x ATI Radeon X850XT AGP 256MB - operating at its default clock speeds of 520/1080MHz using Catalyst 6.1 WHQL with Catalyst Control Center, available from ATI.com.

The video card drivers were left at their default settings (unless otherwise stated) with the exception of Vsync, which was disabled in all cases.

We use the following abbreviations on our best-playable settings tables:

• TSS AA - Transparency SuperSampled Anti-Aliasing (NVIDIA GeForce 7 series);
  
• TMS AA - Transparency MultiSampled Anti-Aliasing (NVIDIA GeForce 7 series);
  
• HQ Driver - High Quality Driver Settings to remove noticeable texture shimmering in certain titles (NVIDIA).